Alcobaça Monastery
| Monastery of Saint Mary of Alcobaça | |
|---|---|
 Royal Abbey of Alcobaça |
|
| location |
 Portugal
|
| Coordinates: | 39 ° 32 '53.4 " N , 8 ° 58' 47" W |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
278 |
| founding year | 1153 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1833 |
| Primary Abbey | Clairvaux Monastery |
|
Daughter monasteries |
Tamarâes |
| Alcobaça Monastery | |
|---|---|
UNESCO world heritage 
|
|
| National territory: |
Portugal
|
| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | i, iv |
| Reference No .: | 505 |
| UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1989 (session 13) |
The former Cistercian monastery of Saint Mary of Alcobaça , O Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça , or the Royal Abbey of Alcobaça , A Real Abadia de Alcobaça , a World Heritage Site since 1989, is one of the largest monastery complexes in Portugal with the largest church in the country . It is located in the city of the same name Alcobaça in the historic province of Estremadura , about 100 km north of Lisbon . For many centuries the abbey, which was entrusted with its own domain, was the spiritual center of the country and its abbot was one of the king's most important advisers. It was donated in 1153 by the first Portuguese king Afonso I. Henriques . According to legend, Afonso Henriques had vowed to the Blessed Virgin Mary that he would found a monastery for her if he succeeded in taking their important fortress of Santarém during his liberation struggle against the Moors ( Reconquista ) . He succeeded in doing this in 1147, so that, in order to keep his promise, he donated the area of Alcobaça to the Cistercian Abbot Bernhard von Clairvaux , which was actually documented in 1153. In the royal hall of the monastery, this story is retold on blue wall tiles ( azulejos ) from the 18th century. 25 years after the foundation, the Cistercians began building the monastery in 1178, creating one of the richest and most powerful monasteries of this order. The monastery, abandoned by the monks in 1833, is now one of the most attractive historical sights in Portugal with over 250,000 visitors a year.
Historical background
The founding of the Monastery of Alcobaça is closely related to the founding history of the State of Portugal and the history of the abbey is no less a reflection of that of the state.
Portugal's birth
Afonso Henriques, born in 1108, participated in the Reconquista at an early age as Count of Portugalia. At the age of 12 he knighted himself and equipped a small army with which he advanced very successfully south from his Portuguese county in the north ( Guimarães ). In 1131 he moved his residence to Coimbra and in 1139 he inflicted a great defeat on the Moors at the Battle of Ourique . He then crowned himself King of Portugal, releasing himself from the sovereignty of Alfonso VII , King of Castile. This led to clashes between Portugal and Castile. With the intervention of a papal legate, Alfonso of Castile recognized the independence of Portugal in 1143.
Papal recognition
Even more important, however, had to be the formal recognition of his kingship by the Pope, for which he is said to have used the support of Bernard of Clairvaux for Afonso Henriques. As abbot and founder of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux, he was one of the most influential churchmen of his time. In 1145 he ascended with Eugene III. for the first time a Cistercian took the papal seat. In 1144, Afonso Henriques had already given the Tarouca Monastery in northern Portugal to the Cistercians . After he was able to achieve large territorial gains with the liberation of Santarém, Lisbon , Sintra , Almada and Palmela in 1147 , papal recognition was all the more pressing, in 1153 during the lifetime of Bernard of Clairvaux - it was the last monastery he founded before his death - and that of Pope Eugene III. was given a boost by the gift of Alcobaça. It was an area of almost 500 km², which roughly corresponded to today's district of the same name and the district of Nazaré enclosed by it on the Atlantic coast as well as part of the district of Caldas da Rainha and between the 613 meter high Serra de Candeeiros mountains and the Atlantic coast lies. However, recognition only took place in 1179 through a bull from Pope Alexander III. In the royal hall of the monastery (see below), a group of life-size clay figures from the 18th century depicts the imaginary coronation of Afonso Henriques by Bernhard von Clairvaux and Pope Innocent II (1130–1143).
Settlement policy
Apart from this special occasion, the surrender of parts of the territorial gain achieved by the Moors as a result of the Reconquista to monasteries also corresponded to a general settlement policy in order to pacify the occupied land and to reliably convert the new subjects. In the footsteps of the liberation struggle by Afonso Henriques in 1127 Vimieiro to Cluny and 1128 Soure were donated to the Templars , in 1131 the Santa Cruz Monastery was founded in Coimbra , the Templars were given to Tomar in 1159 and finally a third of the land conquered in the Alentejo in 1169 ; In 1172 the Order of Santiago received the Arruda castle near Évora .
History of the monastery
Medieval monastery
The Cistercians took twelve monks and an abbot, according to the Rule on the minimum size of an abbey, from the Foundation land once owned and built a few hundred meters from the present monastery from the provisional Abbey of Santa Maria a Velha on the banks of the river Alcoa , from the the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Mary Conception) still testifies today. When the construction of the church and the first monastery complex began in 1178, the area was by no means pacified and the attacks of the Moors repeatedly delayed construction progress. In the massacre of 1195, when Muslims from Morocco landing in Pederneira (today Nazaré) attacked the monastery under construction, all 95 monks working there were killed. The monks found protection above all in a directly neighboring fortress, the Castelo of Alcobaça, an old Mauritian castle, according to another opinion also of Wisigoth origin (the West Goths ), which Afonso Henriques and his successor Sancho I had restored. The outer walls of the Castelo are still preserved today. With the help of the abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Oseira in the then Castilian Galicia , Don Fernando Yáñez, the Alcobaça monastery, which had been severely decimated by the attack, was revived. On August 6, 1223, the monks left the old abbey and moved into the new monastery. The grave of the third king of Portugal, Afonso II , who died in 1223 , was added to the new church in 1224, which itself was not essentially completed until 1240 and consecrated in 1252.
Coutos de Alcobaça
Main article: Coutos de Alcobaça
The area of land left to the Cistercians, which lay in the Moorish border area, was probably hardly used agriculturally because of the armed conflicts. The monks immediately began to settle it by setting up Meierhöfen, never more than a day's walk from the monastery, in the form of coutos (Latin cautum: for security), a type of church planting under monastic guidance and supervision. After a few years, the settlers there received their own usage rights and had to pay taxes to the abbey. The first foundations, like that of Aljubarrota , took place as early as 1164/1167, the last in the 15th century. Of these farms, the Quinta do Campo in the area of the municipality of Valado dos Frades, which already belongs to the district of Nazaré, is the only one that still has its basic structure. The farm is documented as early as the 13th century, probably dating from the 12th century and was created when the swamps there were drained. From the 14th century on, the monks ran a school for agriculture and water management there. Today the facility is used for tourist purposes. Most of the localities in today's Alcobaça and Nazaré districts go back to such settlements, as evidenced by the churches and chapels that were built first, as well as the pillars of shame , called Pelourinhos (poor sinners pillars), which proclaim the abbey's own jurisdiction . The abbot of Alcobaça received the royal privilege that his judgments were withdrawn from the royal revision, so that some refugees found protection there themselves from the king, in the beginning also some offenders settled there. The monks quickly cultivated and settled the country in this way and soon had independent spiritual and secular rule in the form of the Coutos de Alcobaça. As early as the 13th century, the monastery had two ports ( Alfeizerão / São Martinho do Porto and Pederneira, today part of Nazaré ) from which they also operated fishing. There they were already shipping wine and salt at that time, which they won in the salt pans of a lagoon that stretched from Pederneira (Nazaré) to a few kilometers from Alcobaça, and later olives and oil, nuts, dried fruit and wood were added. In 1368 and 1374, a donation from King Fernando I extended the abbey to include areas near Paredes da Vitória and Pataias . The monastic rule finally came under 19 localities, of which 13 became cities (vilas), such as Aljubarrota (1164/1167), Alvorninha (1210), Pederneira (1236/1238), São Martinho do Porto (1257), Paredes da Vitória ( 1282), Évora de Alcobaça (1285), Cela Nova (1286), Salir de Matos (probably 13th century), Cós (1301), Maiorga (1303), Santa Catarina (1307), Turquel (1314), and Alfeizerão ( 1332, which already existed in Moorish times). This settlement structure still characterizes the district of Alcobaça, where most of the municipalities, such as Alcobaça itself, predominantly have between 3000 and 6000 inhabitants. Because of the experience of the monks, the kings used their help in other parts of the country, such as B. in the drainage of swamps, where the abbey was enfeoffed with goods.
Power gain
The economic success ensured a considerable influx, which is why the monastery facilities were constantly expanded. The part located immediately north of the church, which is now considered to be medieval, was expanded. As recent excavations before the turn of the century suggest, the construction of further buildings on the south side of the church, presumably an additional cloister and enclosing facilities, was probably started as early as the 14th century, of which today's south wing of the monastery was a part. Up until now it had been assumed that this wing was only added in the 18th century, when the entire western front of the monastery complex was given a baroque facade. By the beginning of the 15th century, the monks developed a great activity, cultivated the land and built up and expanded agriculture, carried out fishing, extracted salt and iron, developed blacksmithing, promoted the handicrafts and trained the settlers. In 1269 they founded one of the first public schools in the West, from whose relocation to Coimbra in 1290 the University of Coimbra emerged . The communities belonging to the monastery flourished so well that in the Abbey of Alcobaça, too, the strict Cistercian rules began to displace some of the well-being, a development to which many monasteries succumbed. Therefore, Pope Benedict XII ordered. 1335 a reform of the Cistercian order. King Afonso IV (1291-1357) used this to curtail the power of the abbey and subordinated a large number of the towns belonging to Alcobaça to his rule on the grounds that the deed of foundation of King Afonso Henriques did not include the towns. In his son Pedro I (1357-1367), whose tomb is erected together with that of his lover Inês de Castro in the transept of the church of Alcobaça (see below), the abbey again grew up a great patron who acquired their rights restored the confiscated cities except for the supreme royal jurisdiction, which he retained.
Position of the abbot in the state
The abbot of Alcobaça was a born member of the Cortes , the assembly of the Portuguese estates, first pastor of the king and was not inferior in rank to the bishops, to which he was superior because of his own territorial rule. He became one of the most important people in the kingdom and was entitled: Dom Abade do Real Mosteiro de Alcobaça, do Conselho de Sua Majestade seu Esmoler-mor, Donatário da Coroa, Senhor dos Coutos e Fronteiro-mor (Lord and Abbot of the Royal Monastery of Alcobaça, the council of his majesty and its chief deacon, liege lord of the crown, lord of the coutos and chief governor of the border march). He continued to exercise his own jurisdiction, limited by royal prerogatives, such as issuing death sentences. It extended beyond the own area of the Coutos de Alcobaça to Porto de Mós and far to the south (Ota) and east (Beringel near Beja ). For its territory, the abbey was exempt from the obligation to provide troops for the army and navy. Dom João I (1385–1433), founder of the House of Avis , the second line of Portuguese kings, himself as Grand Master of the Order of Avis a member of the Cistercian Order (after he was called as king, he was appointed by the Pope to ensure the continued existence of the new dynasty of freed from his vows and left behind nine legitimate children, including Heinrich the Navigator, one of the most important Portuguese, and three illegitimate children), showered the monastery with his favor and restored its power wherever his predecessors had tried to circumcise them . Nevertheless, in 1427 he explicitly declared before the Cortes that he claimed the Abbey of Alcobaça as royal property.
Under royal power
In view of the wealth and this abundance of power, the monks again distanced themselves from the strict teaching of their founders. In 1475 Abbot Nicolau Vieira secretly ceded his rights to the Archbishop of Lisbon, who later became Cardinal Jorge da Costa, in exchange for an annual pension of 150,000 Réis . The monks only found out about this when a delegation from the archbishop took possession of his new rights. In view of his influence in Rome, the complaints of the monks with the Pope fizzled out, especially since the archbishop immediately had the monastery pay tribute to Rome. The monastery, whose general assembly had always chosen its abbots themselves, thus came under the influence of the abbots at the commandant's office (appointed by the king). At the end of the 15th century, the weakness of the monastery meant that many of the localities under the abbey were given self-government. As a result, the number of lay brothers declined decisively and the direct rulership of the land and the associated agriculture was limited to a few areas near the monastery. In 1531 Afonso de Portugal (1509–1540), the fourth son of King Manuel I (1469–1521) and brother of the future King João III. (1502–1557) Abbot of Alcobaça, he was also Bishop of Lisbon and Cardinal. After his death, King João III. his other brother Henrique (1512-1580) as abbot, who was also Archbishop of Lisbon and General Inquisitor of Portugal and was later appointed cardinal. Two years before his death he finally became King of Portugal as Henrique I (the last of the House of Avis as well as the last King before the temporary loss of Portugal's independence to Spain), which is why he was also called the Cardinal King. He had ruled the country once before from 1557 to 1568 for his underage great-nephew Sebastião I. This ever-closer links with the Portuguese royal house - it had asked the abbot for more than 50 years old - meant that, after some initial internal church disputes over secession of Clairvaux in 1567 Pope Pius V in a bull independence of the Portuguese Cistercians of the Order the Cistercian decreed.
Autonomous Cistercian Congregation
The resulting Autonomous Cistercian Congregation of Saint Bernard of Alcobaça became the head of the Portuguese Cistercian monasteries and the abbot assumed the title of Abbot General of the Congregation. The Order of Knights of Avis and the Order of Christ , the successor to the Order of the Templars in Portugal, were also under his jurisdiction . Alcobaça Abbey returned to its medieval size. Although the inhabitants of the Coutos were now self-employed, they were under the rule of the abbey and had to pay taxes. After Portugal had thrown off the dependence on Spain that existed from 1580 to 1640, the monastery had a new great patron, King João IV (1640-1660), who granted the abbey further rights and privileges. During this period, the monastery was expanded to include two new cloisters, which were connected to the north of the first medieval one, the Claustro da Levada (also called Claustro do Cardeal or dos Noviços), completed in 1636 and begun in the time of Cardinal King Henrique I, as well as the Claustro da Biblioteca (also called Claustro do Rachadoiro). The medieval part of the monastery was also changed significantly, so the new kitchen, which is still impressive today, was set up. From 1702 the monastery received its new, magnificent baroque facade and the church its two towers, an ensemble that still looks more like a castle to the abbey and gives no indication of the original barreness of the Cistercians. The expansion ended in 1755 with the construction of the library, at that time one of the largest on the Iberian Peninsula.
The three disasters
The plague, which killed 150 monks within three months in 1348, as well as earlier floods (such as those of 1437 and 1495) and earthquakes (such as 1422 or 1563), the monastery was always able to overcome despite great damage. But now three events brought the new development of power to an end. As a result of the catastrophe, which went down in history as the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, the southern part of the monastery in particular was damaged, as was the sacristy. The monastery-owned college (Colégio de Nossa Senhora da Conceição), which had been set up on the site of Abadia Velha, the first provisional abbey, since 1648, was completely destroyed and housed in the restored parts of the southern monastery complex. In two large processions to the Santuário de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré in Sítio (Pederneira, today Nazaré ), 10 km away , the monks thanked them for being largely spared despite this damage. In 1774, Alcobaça was hit by a flood when the Alcoa River crossed its banks on December 11th and rose to nine and a half palmi , which is about 2 meters. It again damaged the southern monastery complex and also caused large areas of the monastery to sink into the mud masses of the water flowing back. It took many years until the earth was moved to the south side of the adjacent area, where, among other things, it buried most parts of the local monastery wall. Even today, the wavy shape of the approximately 250 m long north front of the monastery complex is a reminder of the damage that the flood probably caused to the foundations. Finally, during the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula, French troops invaded Alcobaça in 1810 and burned and destroyed large areas of the monastery and church.
State closure of the monasteries
In the following period, only the wing of the western front of the southern monastery complex was restored and the damage to the church and the three northern cloisters were repaired, before all congregations, convents and monasteries in Portugal were dissolved in 1834 due to a decree by the new Queen Maria II . The background to this was a dispute known as the Miguelistenkrieg between the liberal forces demanding a constitutional monarchy, the constitutionalists - a movement that found parallels in several other European countries at the time - and the proponents of an absolutist monarchy. In 1820, a liberal revolution in Portugal led to the king's recognition of the first constitution, which was largely opposed by the royal family as well as by the nobility and the church. A brother of the king, ( Miguel I ), headed the opposing party and proclaimed himself the opposing king. Like other church representatives, the Abbot General of Alcobaça had taken a stand against the liberals, who also called for the privileges of the church to be abolished. The constitutionalists won the armed conflict in 1834. In the decree on the closure of the monasteries, their property was confiscated in favor of the state, with the exception of objects serving sacred acts.
Looting of the monastery from 1833
In the Coutos de Alcobaça, the territory of the abbey, there had already been political unrest throughout the 1920s because the population wanted liberation from monastic rule, etc. a. also because of the special burdens that had been imposed on it as a result of the reconstruction work required by the disasters of 1755, 1772 and 1810. On the forecourt of the monastery there was fighting between the troops of Miguel I and a volunteer battalion of the Coutos de Alcobaça in 1833, which also took part in the decisive battle in the Miguelistenkrieg in 1834 in Évora Monte on the side of the constitutionalists. The monks, like the church as a whole, had relied on the Miguelists and, for their part, had equipped a regiment with volunteers from the Coutos de Alcobaça who fought with the Miguelists. When the monks saw the constitutionalists' victory coming, they first vacated the monastery in July 1833 and then finally in October 1833. In the frenzy of freedom, the population stormed the buildings on October 16, 1833, raged there for eleven days and looted the monastery. In the process, many everyday objects disappeared, but also cult and art objects as well as extensive holdings of the library, the remains of which could only be transferred to the National Library in Lisbon a few years later. During these riots, one of the two caldeiras, cup-shaped copper containers with a diameter of about 1.20 meters and a height of one meter, which the Portuguese captured from the Spaniards at the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385 and the Dom João I dem Had left the monastery. The other Caldeira can be seen in the King's Hall. According to a report, the tombs of Dom Pedro and Inês de Castro are said to have been desecrated again. It was not until 1837 that the state actually took over the monastery complex and thus took control of it.
Decay of the monastery complex
With the extinction of the monastery, Alcobaça suddenly lost all meaning and was largely left to its own devices. The monks disappeared without leaving any traces, and there have been no Cistercians in Portugal since then. In 1838 the stones from the neighboring fort were sold as building materials. The old town wall separating the monastic agricultural facilities north of the monastery from the western monastery forecourt was razed in 1839 . The stake (pelourinho) as a sign of monastic sovereignty was only removed in 1866. The buildings continued to suffer from ongoing vandalism and robbery, windows and doors were removed and fittings dismantled. The southern wing of the monastery was converted into private apartments, while the northern wing was also used by authorities and as business premises. The medieval refectory was converted into a theater hall in 1840, which it remained until 1929. In the youngest cloister Claustro da Biblioteca (or do Rachadoiro) a bullring was set up (1866/68). The newer eastern parts of the monastery were used by the military for the cavalry, then later as the region's old people's and debile home. The buildings of the monastery, like the damaged northern tower of the abbey church, began to deteriorate.
Restoration in modern times
At the end of the 19th century, individual citizens began to reflect on the old importance of the monastery, above all the historian, archaeologist and agronomist Manuel Vieira de Natividade (1860-1918), who published his work on the monastery of Alcobaça in 1885. For the first time in 1901 the president of the district submitted a request to the government to repair and clean the monastery facade. In 1907, parts of the monastery were first placed under protection by government decree. From 1929 onwards, with the help of its monument authorities, the state systematically began to repair the church and the medieval monastery and restore them to their original condition. The south wing was only bought back by the public in the nineties, and the two cloisters and buildings from the 16th to 18th centuries. Century were only released again in 2003. The church and the medieval part of the monastery were recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1989. In 2007, the Alcobaça Monastery was voted one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal by an overwhelming majority in a nationwide competition. After the buildings had suffered considerable damage due to a heavily trafficked main road that crossed the Klosterplatz and then ran directly on the north side, mainly because of the air pollution caused by this, the entire zone was freed from through traffic from 2004 onwards with a measure funded by the European Union . The cloister forecourt was completely redesigned based on earlier specifications.
Cultural significance of the monastery
Education and economy
In the Middle Ages, the further development of agriculture was a domain of monastic culture, which laid the foundation for its economic prosperity, especially with the early settlement of the region around Alcobaça. The monks trained the settlers and also taught them manual skills. Through this they promoted the handicraft, which in itself was only at home in the cities in the Middle Ages. An example of the training is the public school founded in 1269 and the agricultural schools established in the Middle Ages, such as the agricultural school operated in the 14th century on the Quinta do Campo farm in Valado dos Frades (see above). As a result, 13 flourishing cities arose in an area of approx. 500 km², many of which formed separate districts for a long time, of which two remained with Alcobaça and Nazeré. To this day, the region is characterized by agriculture of the highest level of refinement (such as fruit, vegetables, wine, oil). But also the particularly cultivated manual skills led to an early boom of the trade in Portugal in the 19th century, with paper, glass and porcelain as well as textile factories and factories for fruit preservation. Although some of them have since died out, an above-average number of medium-sized production companies still characterize the regional economy.
science
The fact that one of the largest libraries of its time was still completed in 1755 is due, among other things, to the fact that from the 16th century to the 18th century an uninterrupted series of important chroniclers and historians emerged from the monks who became famous as Chroniclers de Alcobaça. They gave u. a. the Monarchia Lusitana, a work on the history of Portugal, but also many monographs on individual historical topics.
art
With the exception of the architecture of the medieval parts of the monastery, which is particularly impressive due to its sobriety, the monks from this period left no special traces, apart from two statues of Mary from the 15th and 16th centuries. This was in accordance with the fundamental ban on images set up by the Cistercian rules, but otherwise also with the virtues of simplicity and modesty. Only with the direct influence of the royal family on the abbey and the solution of Clairvaux did this barrier fall and from the second half of the 17th century an extraordinarily productive school of baroque sculptures emerged, mostly made of clay. Most of the works remained anonymous and are generally assigned to the Barristas de Alcobaça (sound engineers from Alcobaça). The chapel of the relics ( Capela das Relíquias ) in the sacristy, the group with the depiction of the death of St. Bernard in the chapel of the same name in the south transept of the church (considerably damaged during the French invasion in 1810) and a larger number still bear witness to them today of life-size statues used as altarpieces, some of which are normally scattered in the chapels of the Rotunda and in the monastery. Some of the statues, such as that of Saint Anne, also shown here, originally came from an altar in a radial chapel dedicated to the Holy Family.
Foundations of monasteries
Since the importance of the abbey was based more on its spiritual and political power, which it gained in Portugal, hardly any monasteries were founded, especially as long as it was under the rule of Clairvaux and Citeaux , as decisions were made there. The abbot of Alcobaça founded the monastery of Cós as early as 1279 , eight kilometers from Alcobaça, based on a testamentary order from King Sancho II (1207-1248), a women's monastery, which until 1558 only led a shadowy existence. It gained its own importance from this point in time, when it was expanded primarily by Henrique I , the Cardinal Infante and later Cardinal King, who was abbot in Alcobaça from 1540 to 1580. The church, choir and sacristy are still preserved from the monastery. In 1566 Henrique I founded a monastery for Franciscan monks in Capuchos, also just a few kilometers from Alcobaça, who stayed there until the monasteries were abolished in 1834. From this monastery there are only ruins left, besides a chapel. As a result of the great influence that the Cistercians gained in Portugal, monasteries of other origins joined the Cistercian order or were also subordinate to it. The Alcobaça Abbey later also had jurisdiction over this as the Autonomous Cistercian Congregation in Portugal. However, these are not actual daughter monasteries, such as B. The monasteries of Santa Maria de Tamarâes , Santa Maria de Maceira Dão , Santa Maria de Bouro , Santa Maria de Seiça , Estrela and São Paulo de Frades , mostly originally Benedictine monasteries , which are attributed to Alcobaça as foundations in some Cistercian directories .
Number of monks
According to legend, 999 monks lived in the Abbey of Alcobaça, with the 1000th place reserved for the king. In fact, this number of monks probably never existed, and more precise records are missing. The Cistercians, like many other monasteries, always differentiated between the spiritual monks (in some places also called fathers) and the lay brothers (in some places also called fratres, but this is not transferable to the Portuguese orders, since there the spiritual monks carried the title "free" what corresponds to the Latin Frater). In the first centuries of the construction and settlement of the monastery area with the formation of the Coutos, as in other Cistercian monasteries, the lay brothers were likely to have exceeded the spiritual monks in a ratio of 1: 2. This is based on estimates of around 500 monks, of whom around 130 would have been spiritual monks. Around 1500 there are about 150 clergymen, although the proportion of lay brothers is said to have decreased as early as the 14th century. In the course of the 16th century the number decreased to 40 clergymen, only to rise again to over 110 in connection with Alcobaça's appointment as the Autonomous Cistercian Congregation in Portugal. In 1762 there were 139 religious monks. The reports on the capacity of the new kitchen, which was completed around 1700, indicate that the monastery again accommodated around 500 people in total at this time.
Description of the plants
overview
The monastery consists of a church and sacristy and on the north side adjoining three cloisters, which are each completely surrounded by the mainly two-story monastery complex that is accessed from it, as well as a two-story southern wing. The cloisters, including the oldest, are also two-story. The buildings surrounding the two younger cloisters are three-story. In 1998–2000 the remains of what was probably a fourth cloister were discovered on the south side of the church. Century must have been leveled, probably as a result of the earthquake of 1755 and the great flood of 1772 permanently damaged. It is also possible that remnants were removed by the residents of the southern wing after 1834. The entire facility still has a built-up area of 27,000 m² and a floor area of 40,000 m², including the other floors. The built-up area including the southern cloister must have been 33,500 m². The main facade of the monastery, church with north and south wings is 221 m wide, the north side is approx. 250 m long. The church and the first cloister were built from 1178 to 1240 in the early Gothic style of transition from the Romanesque , and in 1252 the church was consecrated. The grounds south of the church were probably built in the 14th century. The construction of the Claustro da Levada, which adjoins the medieval northern cloister, began in the last third of the 16th century, and the Claustro da Biblioteca (or do Rachadoiro) was the last to be built in the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century.
church
The church consists of a main aisle and two side aisles as well as a transept, so that it reproduces the basic shape of a cross. It is debatable whether the church was built in its current form with regard to the chancel, the walkway and the transept, or whether it took a detour similar to the construction of Clairvaux at the same time, via a shorter transept and without a walkway. All ships are the same height with about 20 m. The chancel is bordered to the east by an ambulatory with nine radial chapels, a further four chapels lead into the transept on both sides. The total length is 106 m, the average width 22 m, the width of the transept 52 m. It is one of the largest abbey churches that the Cistercians have ever built in Europe. Only the defunct French abbey church of Vaucelles monastery (132 m long) was larger. The abbey church of Pontigny , also in France, is two meters longer at 108 m, but has a narrower transept. The church of the Clairvaux Abbey , which no longer exists today and which served as a model just like the medieval part of the monastery, was the same size.
The architecture of the Church of Alcobaça expresses the Benedictine Rule of Modesty and Humility, Seclusion and Service to God, whose recollection was one of the main concerns of the Cistercians, through simplicity and frugality in structure and decoration. In spite of its enormous size, the building only makes an impact thanks to its necessary structural elements that seem to strive towards the sky. This impression was restored by the restoration work carried out from 1930 onwards, when the decision was made to go back to the medieval state and many fixtures that had been added over the centuries were removed, including an organ. As a result, the artistically hewn limestone blocks that make up the masonry are visible, many of them with the individual incised stonemason marks on the basis of which the stonemasons were rewarded for their work. The choir stalls, which date from the beginning of the 16th century, had already gone up in flames during the French invasion in 1810. The main facade of the monastery to the west was changed between 1702 and 1725 in the Baroque style . Since then, the facade of the church facing the square has been framed on both sides by almost 100 m wide two-story wing structures. The church itself received two baroque towers and a façade that was up to 43 m high and decorated with several statues. To the left of the portal is a statue of Benedict of Nursia , the father of Catholic monasticism, to the right of Bernhard von Clairvaux. Above, left and right of the rose window, allegories of the four cardinal virtues and above in a niche a figure of Mary. The entrance stairs with typical baroque decorations also date from this period. Only the Gothic portal and probably the rose window remain of the old facade. What the original facade, which was destroyed in 1531, looked like, can no longer be determined with certainty. Presumably the church did not have any towers and thus corresponded to the Cistercian ideal of simplicity.
sacristy
The 100 m² medieval sacristy, located at the end of the northern side of the transept, was replaced during the reign of King Manuel I (1495–1521) by an approximately 250 m² sacristy adjacent to the south-eastern side of the ambulatory along with an atrium. at the same time as the construction of the Senhor dos Passos chapel. Like the chapel, it was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. During the reconstruction, the Manueline portals were preserved, one of the few components of this style in Alcobaça. At the end of the sacristy is the chapel of relics (see above).
Early royal tombs
In the church are the tombs of the early Portuguese kings Afonso II (1185–1123; tomb from 1224) and Afonso III. (1210-1279). They are located on both sides of the chapel of St. Bernard (with the depiction of his death) in the south transept. Opposite, eight other sarcophagi are set up in an adjoining room, in which Beatrice, the wife of Afonso III. and three of their children were buried. Afonso II's first wife, Dona Urraca , was housed in a sarcophagus . The history of the other sarcophagi is not clear. The sarcophagi are empty today and were re-sealed between 1996 and 2000. The outbuilding in which they are now housed was built as a result of repairs after the great flood in 1772. Previously, the sarcophagi stood in the south transept from the 16th century, before that probably in the main nave.
Dom Pedro and Inês de Castro
Sarcophagi
The tombs of King Pedro I (1320–1367), known as Dom Pedro the Cruel, another name for the Righteous, and his lover Inês de Castro (1320–1355) give the church its significance and splendor . The tombs are among the most important grave sculptures of the Middle Ages, which Dom Pedro commissioned immediately after his accession to the throne in 1357 to take in his lover Inês de Castro, who had been executed by his father two years earlier, and himself after his death. The scenes on the tombs, some of which are elaborated to the limit of perceptibility, represent historical events from Portuguese history, but also from the life of Dom Pedro and Inês de Castro, but some are of biblical origin or refer to mere mythical creatures. The iconography is, on the one hand, quite extensive, and on the other, very controversial.
Foundation of the tombs
Dom Pedro was married to Constança Manuel (1318-1345), a princess of the court of Castile, in 1336 in the second marriage . As a result of armed conflicts between Portugal and Castile, Constança did not come to Portugal until 1339. In her entourage she brought Inês de Castro, who came from an old and powerful Castilian noble family, as a maid. Dom Pedro fell in love with her. 1345 Constança died in childbirth 14 days after giving birth to her only surviving son Fernando I . Dom Pedro now lived with Inês in all openness, who bore him three children. Dom Pedro's father, Afonso IV (1291-1357) fought this connection and in 1355 had Inês de Castro convicted of high treason and executed. After Dom Pedro succeeded his father on the throne, he avenged the death of his lover (whom he claimed to have secretly married in 1354) and ordered her to be venerated as Queen of Portugal. When the sarcophagi were completed in 1361, he had them installed in the church of Alcobaça in the southern part of the transept and the remains of Inês de Castro of Coimbra were transferred there, with great sympathy from the nobility and the population. In his will he ordered to be buried in the other sarcophagus and to be placed in such a way that he and the queen would look each other first in the face of the resurrection on Judgment Day (in this respect, only his instruction has been handed down daily to read mass in their graves).
Fate of the tombs
On August 1, 1569, King Sebastião (1554–1578) - his uncle Cardinal Henrique was Abbot of Alcobaça - opened the coffins. According to the report of two monks present, the king recited texts on Dom Pedro's love for Inês. During the Napoleonic invasion in 1810, not only were the sarcophagi irreparably damaged, but the soldiers also desecrated the graves. The embalmed corpse of Dom Pedro was taken out of the coffin and wrapped in a purple cloth, and Inês de Castro's skull, which still had blond hair, was thrown into the room next to the other sarcophagi. The monks later collected the parts of the graves again and sealed the tombs. After 1810, they found various places in the church, only to return to the transept with their current counterpart in 1956. Now the graves are the destination of many lovers, who often come there on the day of their wedding in order to promise one more loyalty in the face of the eternal love symbolized by the tombs.
Medieval cloister
The first cloister is likely to have been completed together with the church around 1240, but it may have collapsed. It was replaced around 1308-1311 by the one that exists today, the Claustro de Dom Dinis or Claustro de Silencio (cloister of calm because there was a ban on speaking there). It has a circumferential length of 203 meters and an average height of 5 meters on the ground floor. At the instruction of King Manuel I (1469–1521), a second floor was added to the cloister at the beginning of the 16th century, so that the cloister has two levels. Access to the upper floor of the cloister is via a spiral staircase at the northeast corner, which also connects the kitchen with the dormitory.
Claustro da Leitura
The southern cloister, called Claustro da Leitura, runs parallel to the church without opening up other parts of the building. From the middle of the 15th century stone benches were set up there on which the monks could stay when they followed the readings that took place there. In the middle of the cloister has a chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary, which is a common tradition in the Cistercian monasteries.
Claustro do Capítolo
The cloister on the east side, also called Claustro do Capítolo, begins on its south side with the connecting door to the church, through which the clergy monks entered the church, and opens up the medieval sacristy, the chapter house, the parlatory and the stairs to the dormitory on the upper floor , the dormitory and access to the monks' hall.
Chapter House
The entrance to the capital hall has a particularly striking facade with columns staggered one behind the other. The capital hall served the gathering of the monks and was the most important room in the monastery after the church. It bears the name because the chapters of the Rule of Benedict were read aloud there every day. But there were also elections and similar joint actions by the monks. It has a square shape measuring 17.5 m × 17.5 m. There should have been room for 200 monks in it. In the Middle Ages, a staircase led directly from the capital hall to the dormitory, as the monks had to appear there at night for readings. In the entrance area to the capital hall is the grave slab of an abbot who can no longer be identified. The floor of the capital hall used to be completely covered with such grave slabs, because according to a Cistercian rule from 1180, the abbots had to be buried in the capital hall, meaning that the monks made their decisions on the graves of their deceased abbots. This type of burial was a great exception to the basic rule of the Cistercians, which forbade monks to be buried within the monastery. That is why there is a door in the south transept with the name porta da morte (death door), because the deceased monks were carried out there for burial. Regardless of this, during the renovation work in the Alcobaça Abbey, monks were found everywhere under the floors or in walls, where an exception to this rule had evidently been made.
Parlatorium
Next to the chapter house is the five-meter-wide parlatorium, in which the monks were allowed to speak to the prior, the abbot's representative. With the exception of praying, the monks were fundamentally obliged to remain silent and were only allowed to communicate verbally what was absolutely necessary. For this reason, many also used sign language for communication.
Dormitory
Then the stairs to the dormitory open up . This staircase was only rediscovered during the renovation work that began in 1930. The dormitory located on the first floor stretches 66.5 m in length and 21.5 to 17.5 m wide over the entire east side of the medieval part of the abbey and thus has a floor area of almost 1,300 m². In its current form, restored by the restoration, it is in its original medieval state. On the south end of the head, the dormitory opens to the north transept of the church with a large arched door. There used to be a staircase leading down there, as the Cistercian rule always required two separate entrances for the shared bedroom. On the north end of the dormitory were the latrines, which had to be separated from the bedroom by a separate room - also according to a general rule of the order. The sewage drained into the garden of the abbey on the north side. The monks slept together in the bedroom in full clothing, separated from their neighbors only by a movable partition. The abbot alone had his own cell on the south side of the church. This arrangement can be found in most of the Cistercian monasteries from this period. In the middle on the western side, a narrow door opens to a narrow spiral staircase, which you can use to get into the kitchen today, and in the Middle Ages into the Kalefaktorium (warming room, see below). This also led to the upper cloister. The dormitory has changed over the centuries. At the beginning of the 16th century, a second floor was drawn in approximately at the level of the capitals of the columns, where there was still enough room height available. The novices in particular are said to have been accommodated there. Below that, in the northern half, rooms had been created that housed the old library and parts of the registry until the new library was built (1755). Cells were now built on the southern side, since with the expansion of the monastery to include the new east-facing cloisters, this type of accommodation replaced the old dormitories. On the east side, the dormitory with the extensions there received a large, directly accessible terrace. In 1716 a new facade of the dormitory was built on the north side, which is crowned by a statue of the founder of the Abbey Dom Afonso I Henriques. As part of the restoration, the second floor was removed in 1940. The dormitory, as it is again today, is a three-aisled room of enormous dimensions, which is mainly used to hold cultural events such as exhibitions.
Monks' hall
Below the northern part of the dormitory, accessible via a door next to the staircase to the dormitory, lies the monks' hall, a four-tiered room of around 560 m² sloping down to the north side. On the north side it has a large gate, on the west side at the north corner a door to the kitchen there. In the first centuries it is said to have served to accommodate the novices who were not allowed to participate in the normal religious life of the spiritual monks, such as in the chapter house. After the novices 'dormitory was moved to the second floor of the dormitory at the beginning of the 16th century, the monks' hall was transformed into a work room, waiting room and common room for the monks. After the new kitchen was built at the end of the 17th century, goods were also delivered and stored here. - At the southern end of the monks' hall there is a massive wall partition, which is open to the ceiling and forms a narrow space to the north wall of the parlatorium. The General Chapter of the Cistercians had decided in 1229 that each monastery had to have its own prison within the monastery for the monks. The abbey had a prison for its civil jurisdiction in the dungeons of the fort to the west above the monastery. According to the new rule, the room at the end of the monks' hall was now used as the monastery's own prison.
Claustro do Refeitório
The northern cloister, called Claustro do Refeitório, opened up in the Middle Ages from east to west the warming room (calefactorium) next to the monks' hall, the refectory with a lavabo in front of it, a fountain for cleaning hands, and the old kitchen. Both north of the old kitchen and north of the warming room were courtyards within the building line.
Old and new kitchen
King Afonso VI. gave during his reign (1656–1667) the order to build a new cloister in the north-western area of the monastery, whereby the medieval kitchen to the west of the refectory had to be given up. At the same time, the monks' eating habits had changed. According to the old Cistercian rule, they were forbidden to eat meat and fatty food, an exception was only allowed in the sick bay in the event of illness. In 1666 Pope Alexander VII had allowed meat to be eaten three times a week. For the monks, this was a huge change, for which their previous and much smaller old kitchen was technically not prepared. The new kitchen, now east of the refectory, had to give way to the calefactorium, the warming room. This was (besides the kitchen) in the monasteries the only heatable room in which, in the Middle Ages, copyists copying books did their work in winter. As a result of the expansion of the monastery to include additional cloisters, it was no longer necessary, especially since letterpress printing had replaced handwritten copying. A new kitchen was built in the area of the warming room and the adjoining courtyard, 29 m deep and a good 6.5 m wide, which extended over both floors and thus reached a height of 18 meters. The exact date of the new building is a matter of dispute, despite a date from 1712 in the kitchen, but it is believed that the new kitchen was built before the cloister of King Afonso VI was built. was completed, so more towards the end of the 17th century. In the middle of the kitchen a chimney was built over a floor space of about 3 × 8 m with a height of about 25 meters, with 2 side chimneys measuring 2.5 m × 1.5 m and 4 m × 1.5 m with the same height, in the roof landscape of the monastery after the church with its nave the highest elevation. Such devices only existed in Portugal in the Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar and in the Royal National Palace of Sintra . The floors of the main chimney were deepened to accommodate the embers, so that these facilities were now - after centuries of abstinence from meat - suitable for grilling and cooking whole cattle. Calculations have shown that the kitchen was sufficient to cater for more than 500 people. In 1762 there were 139 religious monks in Alcobaça, plus the lay brothers. A drainage from the Levada, the artificial tributary of the Alcoa River, flows under the floor of the kitchen. The water exits on the north side of the kitchen in an open channel to flow into an open basin embedded in the floor, from which water can be drawn. Legend has it that the monks caught fish there directly, but that must actually seem impossible. On the western side of the kitchen there are seven large stone basins, where water could flow into the tub-sized basins from two fabulous faces or grimaces, fed by a channel running inside the wall. This channel was fed by another water inlet, which was specially supplied with clean drinking water from a spring via a 3.2 km long pipe (see below). In 1762 the kitchen was given the tiles that are still present today, which cover both walls and ceilings.
refectory
To the west of the new kitchen is the refectory , the dining room for the clergy monks, a three-aisled hall measuring approx. 620 m² (29 × 21.5 m). Above its entrance is the saying in medieval Latin that is difficult to interpret: respicte quia peccata populi comeditis, which means: Remember that you eat the sins of the people. The room impresses with its beautiful proportions. It has windows to the north and to the new kitchen to the east. On the west side a stone staircase leads to the pulpit of the reader, who read from religious texts there during meals. The monks sat with their faces to the walls and ate their meal in silence. The abbot sat with his back to the north wall and watched what was happening. On the west side at the southern end, the refectory opens to the former medieval kitchen, today to an adjoining room that leads to the cloister of Dom Afonso VI. leads. A few meters further on there is an opening in the same wall, two meters high and 32 cm wide. It leads to the mentioned adjoining room and there is no scientifically tenable explanation for it. The legend has been around for a long time that this opening served to control the weight of the monks. You should go through this door once a month, which is only possible with a sideways posture. If this failed because of the body's abundance, those affected were put on a diet. The damage caused by the conversion of the refectory into a theater hall in 1840 (with 301 seats, 120 of which in the galleries and 5 boxes) could largely be repaired during the restoration.
lavabo
Opposite the entrance to the refectory is the lavabo, which literally means washroom. In the middle of a pentagonal pavilion is a fountain with running water, in which the monks could clean themselves before eating. Such a facility is typical of Cistercian monasteries. The washbasin is also fed with water from its own drinking water supply. The roof of the pavilion has been expanded into a terrace, accessible by stairs from the upper cloister, on which there is an old sundial.
Claustro do Poente (western cloister)
In the Middle Ages, this cloister opened up the rooms of the lay brothers who had their refectory there. There were also pantries for the monastery there. The lay monks could enter the church from this side via a separate corridor, where the entrance door to the King's Hall is today. During the services, the back of the church was assigned to them. From the middle of the 16th century, the area for lay brothers was completely redesigned. The later Cardinal King Henrique I, (abbot in Alcobaça from 1540 to 1580), built the abbot's palace there with the instruction that its rooms should be used as a hostel for guests after his death. After his death there is evidence of the hostel (also on the upper floor), the conclusion hall (Sala dos Conclusões) and the royal hall. In the Sala dos Conclusões the statues of the Portuguese kings were placed, which were moved between 1765 and 1769 in the current royal hall, which was previously used as a chapel. The conclusion room later served as a registry, in modern times the tax office was housed there for a long time. The 19 royal statues still preserved today stand on plinths above the doors in the royal hall. On the walls of the King's Hall, azulejos (blue tiles) from the last third of the 18th century depict the legendary founding history of the Alcobaça monastery. There you can also find the group of statues of Afonso Henriques, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Innocent II at the imaginary coronation of the Portuguese king in 1139.
More cloisters
Claustro da Levada
From the 16th century onwards, building activity expanded significantly, mainly as a result of the new tasks as the Autonomous Cistercian Congregation in Portugal, which went far beyond the renovation and redesign of the existing medieval parts of the monastery as well as the costly redesign of the monastery front to the west. Immediately on the east side of the complex to the north of the church, the Claustro da Levada cloister was built, also called Claustro dos Noviços or Claustro de Cardeal (Cardinal's Cloister), probably referring to its author, Cardinal King Henrique I. The levada flows through the courtyard of the cloister, the tributary of the Alcoa river that runs through the monastery and which was introduced into the monastery complex from the south side of the sacristy. a. was used to operate mill wheels and similar devices. The cloister and the three-storey buildings to the north, east and south (in the west it is directly adjacent to the medieval buildings) were completed in 1636. They housed the rooms of the Abbot General and the novices, on the ground floor there were also workshops and the kilns for the clay sculptures. In contrast to the medieval part, cells were now intended to house the monks.
Claustro do Rachadoiro
In the 17th century, the Claustro do Rachadoiro, also called Claustro da Biblioteca, was built due to the continued high space requirements, a construction project that dragged on into the 18th century and with the construction of the library on the south side of the cloister in the year of the earthquake Was completed in 1755. In the buildings accessed from this cloister there are also cells and workshops and similar facilities in the basement. The library essentially consists of a hall measuring 47.7 m by 12.7 m. The ceiling was decorated with a picture of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, surrounded by floral ornaments, which was destroyed in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of roof damage. The library housed one of the largest collections in Portugal until it was looted in 1833 and the remaining holdings were transferred to the National Library in Lisbon.
Surroundings
Monastery wall
According to the Rule of Benedict, a monastery should combine water, mill and garden within its walls. The monastery complex in Alcobaça, like the mother monastery Clairvaux, was surrounded by a high protective wall, although the western front of the monastery with the monastery forecourt formed the immediate border. Presumably there was a body of water protecting the complex here in the Middle Ages. From the western front north the wall probably ran to the river Baça coming from the west, so that the confluence of the rivers Alcoa and Baça as well as the old abbey was within the monastery walls, according to another opinion these were already outside the walls. Part of this wall was not razed until 1839. There are still parts of the southern monastery wall, which extends from the south wing on the monastery forecourt, but has mostly disappeared in the masses of earth that were piled up with the mud that also covered the monastery buildings after the great flood of 1772. This wall is several hundred meters away from the southern front of the monastery, where it then meets the tributary of the Alcoa, the Levada, which originally supplied the monastery with water and hydropower. There, too, the remains of the old wall can still be seen and the levada has superstructures. The course of the boundary of the monastery on the east side, where the Alcoa runs, is not secured. In the depiction of an unknown artist from the first half of the 18th century shown here, the surrounding buildings that already existed at that time were left out.
The southern monastery gardens
Between the southern wall of the monastery and the monastery there were still extensive gardens in the 18th century, the so-called French gardens, of which an elliptically shaped fountain and an obelisk have been preserved. These systems are likely to date from the same time as the modernization on the west side, which began at the end of the 16th century, largely under the influence of the Baroque. 18th century visitors boasted these gardens. The levada flowed through these gardens. On the banks of the levada there were four places with wells that were used as teaching places for the novices. The last one still exists with such a small fountain.
graveyards
The monks' cemetery is said to have been located on the immediate south side of the transept of the church, which is why the door leading out there is also called Porta da Morte. There is also the Capella de Nossa Senhora do Desterro (dedicated to Mary on the Flight into Egypt) from 1716. After the monastery was closed, the cemetery of the citizens of Alcobaça was also located here for several decades.
Agriculture
To the north of the monastery and towards the Alcoa and Baça rivers were the monastery's agricultural facilities. There are remains of them in the existing buildings on Praça de Dom Afonso Henriques, such as the two tunnel-like gate openings there (called Cister and Claraval gates). The monastery horses and carriages were housed in these buildings.
The monastery irrigation system
The Abadia Velha, the first provisional monastery, was built on the banks of the Alcoa River. The monastery was later supplied with water and hydropower via an artificially created tributary of this river, the Levada. According to the results of recent investigations, it also appears possible that the Alcoa River was relocated or straightened and parts of its old bed were used to expand the levada. It is noticeable, however, that the monks obviously set up their own supply for their drinking water very early on. For example, in Chiqueda, which lies on the upper reaches of the Alcoa river, a spring was taken and its water was led over 3.2 km underground and partly in accessible tunnels in open channels running there with an average gradient of 0.25% to the monastery. This supplied the wash basin in front of the entrance to the refectory, where the monks could clean themselves, and the kitchen. Inside the monastery wall there were also several wells from which this clean water emerged, like the gargoyle pictured, probably from the 16th century. It is reasonable to assume that the underground route should also ensure the drinking water supply in times of crisis. Corresponding subterranean inflows from more distant sources via channels laid in accessible tunnels also existed from the immediate south side, where parts of these corridors are still present. Presumably they served to supply the monastery with spring water before the new water pipe from Chiqueda was built. Such underground facilities are also known on the north side of the monastery towards Vestiaria .
Individual evidence
- ^ Cocheril, Alcobaça, Abadia Cisterense de Portugal . Alcobaça 1981 Deposito Legal 30 258/89, p. 19
- ^ Critical to this, Nobre de Gusmão, A real Abadia de Alcobaça . Lisboa 2nd ed. 1992, ISBN 972-24-0835-6 , pp. 45-49
- ^ Oseira Monastery page, history , accessed March 23, 2018 (Spanish); Yáñez Neira D .: VIII centenario de los mártires de Alcobaça: 1195-1995. In: Cisterercium ISSN 0210-3990 , 1995, pp. 557-576; see. also Yáñez Neira. D: Protagonismo del monasterio de Oseira en Alcobaça. In: Compostellanum, 40, 1-2 (1993) pp. 13-20
- ↑ Quinta do Campo, Antiga Granja do Valado. In: Pesquisa Geral - Pesquisa do Patrimonio. Direção Geral do Património Cultural , accessed March 23, 2018 (Portuguese).
- ↑ Cocheril, p. 27
- ↑ J. Veira Natividade, Obras Várias, Alcobaça, Vol. II, As Granjas do Mosteiro de Alcobaça, pp. 62-64; see. also Saul António Gomes, Um Manuscrito ilumindado alcobacense trecentista: o Caderno dos Forais do Couto, PDF
- ↑ Tavares, Mosteiro de Alcobaça, O Claustro Sul no Mosteiro de Alcobaça . Relatório CB 25, Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico, 1999, IPPA; the same, Hidráulica, Linhas Gerais de Sistema Hidráulico Cisterciense em Alcobaça . in: Roteiro Cultural da Região de Alcobaça . Pp. 39-109, Alcobaça 2001, ISBN 972-98064-3-8 , p. 81
- ↑ Santuário da Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, Uma Cronologia (de 1750 aos nossos dias), Lisbon 2002, Edições Colibri / Confraria de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, p. 54
- ↑ http://www.oalcoa.com/inundacoes-em-alcobaca-no-seculo-xviii-iv-a-grande-cheia-de-11-de-dezembro-de-1774/
- ↑ The major came from a respected old family from Turquel , Francisco Garção, História de Antigo Conselho de Turquel, [1]
- ↑ Plan prepared using information in: Dom Maur Cocheril: Alcobaça, Abadia Cisterense de Portugal . Alcobaça 1989 Deposito Legal 30 258/89
- ↑ Cocheril pp. 42-45; Nobre de Gusmão pp. 19-31
- ↑ Burmeister, Hans-Peter .: Portugal: Roman villas, Manueline monasteries and museums of modernity between Lisbon and Porto, Minho and Algarve . DuMont-Buchverl, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4416-3 , p. 400 .
- ↑ Tavares, Mosteiro de Alcobaça, O Claustro Sul no Mosteiro de Alcobaça . Relatório CB 25, Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico, 1999
literature
- Rui Rasquilho: Guide to the Alcobaça area. Alcobaça 1980 (translated by Norbert Lind)
- Portuguese literature:
- Dom Maur Cocheril: Alcobaça, Abadia Cisterense de Portugal . Alcobaça 1989 Deposito Legal 30 258/89
- Artur Nobre de Gusmão: A real Abadia de Alcobaça . Lisboa 2nd edition 1992, ISBN 972-24-0835-6 .
- Maria Zulmira Furtado Marques: Around Século de História de Alcobaça 1810–1910 . 2003, ISBN 972-97145-8-4
- Manuel Vieira Natividade: O Mosteiro de Alcobaça . Coimbra 1885
- José Pedro Duarte Tavares: Hidráulica, Linhas Gerais de Sistema Hidráulico Cisterciense em Alcobaça . in: Roteiro Cultural da Região de Alcobaça . Pp. 39-109, Alcobaça 2001, ISBN 972-98064-3-8
- José Pedro Duarte Tavares: Mosteiro de Alcobaça, O Claustro Sul no Mosteiro de Alcobaça . Relatório CB 25, Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico, 1999
- Direcção-Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais, Inventário do Património Arquitectónico, Mosteiro de Alcobaça / Real Abadia da Santa Maria de Alcobaça
Web links
Heritage: Angra do Heroísmo city center (1983) | Jeronimos Monastery and Belém Tower in Lisbon (1983) | Batalha Monastery (1983) | Christ Monastery in Tomar (1983) | Old town of Évora (1986) | Alcobaça Monastery (1989) | Sintra Cultural Landscape (1995) | Old town of Porto (1996) | Prehistoric rock carvings in the Vale do Côa (1998) | Alto Douro wine region (2001) | Old town of Guimarães (2004) | Viticultural landscape of the island of Pico (2004) | Border and garrison town of Elvas with its fortifications (2012) | University of Coimbra (2013) | Mafra National Palace (2019) | Pilgrimage Church of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga (2019)
Natural heritage: Laurisilva of Madeira (1999)